This invention relates to apparatus utilized to clean carpets.
It is well known to utilize portable steam cleaning equipment to clean carpets. These devices work on the same principle; they spray hot water on the carpet and the water is removed from the carpeting as quickly as possible. Rather than just employ hot water as the liquid cleaner, detergents and the like can be combined therewith to increase effectiveness of the operation.
The earlier steamers employed wands called drag wands which were manually manipulated by an operator and applied the liquid cleaner to the carpet. Immediately thereafter the liquid cleaner was removed by a vacuum applied through the wand. The drag wand only works on a backward stroke due to the fact that the water or other liquid cleaner is sprayed on the carpet operator would adjust the length of the handle on the drag wand to the height of his waist, both hands being positioned side-by-side and a few inches apart on the grip of the handle.
Spots on a carpet may need to be gone over more than once while steam cleaning. With the drag wand, the operator would have to stop the flow of water by letting go of the handle with his right hand and lift the lever to the off position. He would then drag the wand to pick up the excess water on the carpet. The wand would then be rolled forward over the spot. In this latter step there is no cleaning action taking place. After turning the water back on, the operator grips the handle as he goes over the spot again on the back stroke. Sometimes this would have to be repeated several times to get the spot out, a very time consuming process to say the least. Drag wands are quite heavy and very slow. Use and transfer exert a toll on the operator""s stamina. Cleaning area rugs with a drag wand requires two people, one to stand on the end of the rug so the rug would not move with the wand, and the other to work the drag wand.
A more recent development in the field of steam cleaning wands is the scrub wand characterized by its relatively light weight and ease of handling. The scrub wand is designed to have one hand placed at the top portion of the wand with that hand controlling the valve for the water spray. The other hand is positioned on the grip handle. This wand works by moving the wand back and forth in a scrubbing motion, hence the name scrub wand. As with the drag wand, a spray nozzle is located on only one side of the vacuum head, behind the vacuum slit of the wand vacuum head. The scrub wand works on the same principle as the drag wand and when the operator pushes the scrub wand forward with the water on all that is accomplished is wetting of the carpet, due to the fact that the vacuum slit is in front of the water spray. A separate rearward movement of the wand must be made to vacuum extract the water from the carpet.
All carpet has a grain and on some carpets the grain can make the wand bounce on the backward or forward stroke, losing the vacuum seal on the carpet and thus reducing the effectiveness of the extraction process. The operator would have to use another or extra forward or backward stroke to extract the water that was left behind, further slowing down the operator. Another drawback of the scrub wand is that when cleaning area rugs it normally requires two operators, one to hold down the rug while it is being cleaned and the other operator to maneuver the wand.
As will be seen below, the drawbacks of the drag and scrub wands are eliminated with the apparatus of this invention. The apparatus allows the operator to place a water spray in front of as well as in back of the vacuum slit of the wand vacuum head. These water sprays are independently controlled by valves located at two handles of the wand and operated by manipulation of the handles.
A search directed to this invention located the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,799, issued Sep. 18, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,678, issued Sep. 20, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,922, issued Feb. 20, 1979.
Two of the patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,167,799 and 4,139,922, show the general idea of employing a plurality of spray nozzles in carpet cleaning machines. These devices are, however, relatively specialized, complicated and heavy pieces of equipment, with the arrangements disclosed not lending themselves to use with a manually held and operated wand.
The present invention relates to carpet cleaning apparatus of the hand-held and manipulated wand type which effectively and efficiently provides for the cleaning of carpets. The term carpets as employed herein also encompasses rugs and other types of floor coverings. The invention is characterized by its relative simplicity and ease of use.
The carpet cleaning apparatus of the invention incorporates a cleaning wand including a vacuum head having a vacuum head front and a vacuum head rear for applying a vacuum to a carpet. The vacuum head defines a vacuum head interior and a vacuum head inlet communicating with the vacuum head interior.
The cleaning wand also includes an elongated member connected to the vacuum head and defining a passageway in communication with the vacuum head interior for applying a vacuum to the vacuum head interior and transporting material removed from a carpet by the vacuum head.
A first manually graspable handle is connected to the elongated member at a first location on the elongated member.
A second manually graspable handle is connected to the elongated member at a second location on the elongated member.
A front spray nozzle is located adjacent to the vacuum head at the vacuum end front and in front of the vacuum head inlet.
A rear spray nozzle is located adjacent to the vacuum head at the vacuum head rear and to the rear of the vacuum head inlet.
Valve means is operatively associated with the first and second manually graspable handles for selectively controlling the flow of liquid cleaner to the front and rear spray nozzles from a source of liquid cleaner.
Other features, advantages and objects of the present invention will become apparent with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings.